Processed Food

Several weeks ago we finally used some of our wedding gift cards to purchase a food processor. It’s a middle-of-the-road Wolfgang Puck model that was inexpensive enough for our gift cards to cover, but cool enough to have a slicing and shredding disk! Since then, I’ve used it 987938479324 times. Okay, maybe about 5 or 6. That’s still roughly once per week.

First up!

Banana soft serve.

I don’t have a picture for this, but just imagine it in your head.

Blend frozen banana chunks into the processor until it forms the consistency of soft serve. It first begins to look like a crumbled mess. Keep going. Trust me. It will get there.

The taste? Like banana soft serve. I’ve heard that peanut butter mixed in is divine!

Second!

Homemade hummus!

Now, I’ve had hummus a grand total of 4 times in my life. The first time was store-bought Sabra. It was good, but didn’t necessarily thrill me. The second time was homemade. I didn’t like it. The third time was at Market Street at the salad bar. I liked it. The fourth time was this time. I made up the recipe on my own terms and used dried garbanzo beans instead of canned. I LOVE IT.

Lemon Garlic Hummus

1/2 lb of dried garbanzo beans, soaked overnight, left to simmer for 45 minutes (or until cooked) in the morning, and drained.

4-6 cloves of fresh garlic

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tbsp peanut butter

~5 tbsp of lemon juice. Fresh squeezed would be ideal!

~5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (this is the time to pull out the good stuff!)

Place chickpeas/garbanzo beans, garlic, salt, peanut butter, and lemon juice in the food processor and pulse until it looks nice and crumbly. Slowly add the oi while pulsing. Then slowly add the water, while pulsing, until the mixture comes out smooth.

Yield about two cups worth of hummus at around 45 calories per tbsp.

I personally look forward to tomorrow’s lunch, which will feature this hummus in a veggie wrap alongside pepperjack, avocado, carrots, alfalfa sprouts, arugula, and bell peppers!

And third! A homemade Larabar, Almond Joy-style!

“Almond Joy” “Larabar”

8 dried dates

8 almonds, crushed/chopped

1 tbsp shredded coconut

1 tsp dark cocoa powder

Pulse almonds and dates together until well-mixed and crumbly. Add coconut and cocoa powder and pulse until well mixed, again. It won’t look like it will form together well, but pull it out onto some wax paper and form into a bar shape. Wrap with the wax paper and place in the fridge to firm up for a while.

Enjoy! It tastes JUST like an almond joy!

1 bar is equal to about 287 calories. The picture above shows one HALF of a Larabar.